Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone

by TheCrimsonDM


Chapter Fifty Nine: The Darkness Inside

HEART OF STONE
Chapter Fifty Nine: The Darkness Inside
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Trixie opened her eyes and was blinded by an incredible light. Quickly she raised a leg up to block the sun’s light and squinted in an attempt to see where she was. As her eyes slowly adjusted she saw the open window that she had been staring at and felt the cool morning breeze brushing against her fur.

The wooden walls of this room were painted white which complemented the deep blue carpet. There was a single twin sized bed with a purple blanket, a matching purple pillow rested on it. A shelf lined with various role playing books from the famous Oubliettes and Ogres game, along with official miniatures from the game. A few comic books were scattered on the floor and Trixie quickly reached out with her magic and picked them up; no point in leaving a perfectly good comic on the floor after all.

A quiet knocking at the door raised Trixie’s curiosity. Had she not told everypony that she was going to enjoy her day off alone? Or was there a real reason that she was being bothered right now? Trixie let out a sigh and walked to the door.

She opened the door and looked at the young mare staring back at her. This mare had an egg white fur coat, and a short mane of orange and red that covered part of her face obscuring her left eye. Trixie smiled at the unicorn and said, “What can Trixie do for you today?”

The mare looked away from Trixie and said, “I’m so sorry, Trixie. It’s just that Twilight said that you were going to help us learn a musical spell today. Please don’t be mad at me.”

Trixie rolled her eyes and said, “I’m not mad at you, Fire Light. I just forgot that Twilight still needed help with such a simple cantrip.”

The unicorn’s head lowered and she nearly whispered, “My name is Candle Light…”

“It’s just a nick name Fire Light, there is no need to get upset,” Trixie said while walking past the unicorn. Trixie examined the mare’s tiny frame for a moment allowing her eyes to linger on Candle Light’s flanks for only a second before looking down the hall. Although Trixie admired her cutie mark, a flaming circle, the mark was not what Trixie was interested in.

The hall had five more doors each one of them belonged to another pony in the group. Each door was closed right now and Trixie assumed that half of them were asleep or had gone out somewhere fun. Trixie walked down the hall following that she went down a staircase which lead into the large living room. Candle Light followed quietly.

The purple unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle, or in the groups opinion, Celestia’s pet, was reading quietly to herself with a stack of five or six books next to her. Twilight looked up from her comfortable lying position on the giant pink pillow and stared flatly at Trixie. Trixie stuck her nose up at Twilight and said, “So you expect Trixie to teach you how to do a simple cantrip today?”

This brought a frown to Twilight’s face as she said, “Not if you are going to patronize me like that.”

Trixie smiled and said, “Then you shall never learn, however I will be teaching Candle Light either way. If you want to join us you are welcome.”

Normally Trixie didn’t take such tones with ponies, but Twilight was above her in the group and this fact really got on Trixie’s nerves. Having some noble pony, somepony who was also Celestia’s protégé and personal student being her leader was a dent in Trixie’s pride. Trixie lead Candle Light over to the kitchen counter and dragged over three wooden chairs. Trixie sat in the middle one and patted a hoof on the one to her right.

After Candle Light sat on the chair next to her Trixie used her magic to drag over three potted plants. These pots were filled with grass since Trixie assumed that it would be the easiest plant to work with. Trixie’s horn began to glow a soft blue and the grass began moving as though by wind, soon a simple song began playing, soft little notes came from the grass and sounded very much like a flute.

“Wow,” Candle Light said in surprise.

Trixie grinned. “This is a wonderful little cantrip and if you can learn it well you can play all kinds of wonderful songs with it. Trixie is a little out of practice so please don’t be harsh in your judgment of her music lacking any form or continuity.”

“Oh, I won’t judge. I think it sounds pretty,” Candle Light said before giving a wide smile to Trixie.

Twilight joined them at the table and examined Trixie and the grass. After a moment Twilight’s horn began glowing and a soft wind blew in the room moving the grass in the pot, but no sound came from it. Trixie gave a little laugh at Twilight’s failure.

“It’s not my fault, you didn’t tell us how to do the spell,” Twilight protested.

“Oh so you are interested in being taught by somepony like me?” Trixie said. She wanted to see Twilight suffer, just a little, by being taught by an inferior pony.

“I don’t really have a choice now do I? Celestia forced us together, but I’m sure that she has a good reason for it. Maybe I’m supposed to help you get rid of your attitude, after all I’m her protégé and it would only be expected of me to be an example for all of you,” Twilight said proudly.

Trixie’s grin faded a little as she said, “And maybe I’m supposed to make you less arrogant, you stuck up prissy pony.”

Twilight shot a death glare at Trixie and Trixie promptly ignored it. Trixie smiled again as she looked at the grass pot and explained, “The spell is a simple one, you need to channel your magic into the grass and think of the music you want it to play. It might take practice from a pony such as yourself but I’m sure that you can do this one day, Twilight.”

Twilight looked a little angry for a moment before turning her head and focusing on the plant. She closed her eyes and her horn began glowing. The grass pot in front of Twilight began move and after a few seconds noise was emitted from the plant. A horrible sour note was sounding loudly from the plant for a few seconds before Twilight finally stopped and glared at the plant.

“Hmm. That didn’t seem to work, are you sure that you’re teaching it right?” Twilight said sourly.

“Trixie is sure. Fire Light, why don’t you give it a shot? I’d love to see you try,” Trixie said.

Candle Light stared at the grass pot and squinted her eyes, her horn began glowing and nothing happened. Her brow furrowed and she frowned and suddenly the grass started to move. Trixie watched in anticipation hoping that it would work, and her eyes widened as the grass suddenly caught on fire.

Candle Light stopped concentrating and looked shocked for a moment then she looked sad as her horn stopped glowing. “I’m sorry, Trixie. I messed up again.”

Twilight laughed a little before saying, “Its fine Fire Light. After I learn the spell I will teach it to you.”

Trixie glared at Twilight before giving a kind smile to Candle Light and saying, “That’s assuming that Twilight learns it first. Personally I have my bits on you. So let’s try this again and I’ll try and find out what you are doing wrong. If I can figure that out, I’ll be able to help you correct your spell usage.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and Candle Light gave a tiny smile back to Trixie before saying quietly, “Thank you.”

Trixie smiled back at her but she knew how this would turn out. Twilight was going to learn the spell after a few hours of hard work, and then she would try her hardest to incorrectly teach Candle Light. Poor Candle Light admired Twilight so much that all of Trixie’s teaching would go right out the window at that point. How Trixie knew this she wasn’t sure. She even knew that at one point Lyra was going to walk in and giggle at the horrible music that Twilight would be playing.

Trixie put a hoof to her chin and pondered how she could know such things before they happened. It was like this had already happened once before, like it was memory. Suddenly the world around her grew dark and both Twilight and Candle Light vanished.

Trixie was now sitting in that wooden chair in pitch black darkness all alone. She looked around quickly trying to figure out what was happening and it began to dawn on her what she was supposed to doing. She was trying to find Red Velvet and get help for Maud and Pinkie. She was attacked by something, spiders, and then she fell asleep somewhere strange and dark.

A scarlet orb appeared from nowhere leaving a glowing trail behind as it flew around Trixie. Trixie looked at the orb and tried to discern its intentions. The orb seemingly grew brighter as a voice emanated from it. “Trixie Lulamoon,” The female voice said. “You are quite the specimen. You have died, and come back to life. You have dealt with dark magic and yet still live. You have fought creatures that would even give me cause to worry, and you did so valiantly. I think that if any of your pathetic race was going to deserve a gift from the gods, it would be you. Do you not agree?”

Trixie watched in silence as the orb stopped moving and hovered in front of her silently. Trixie took a moment before answering the mysterious little ball of light. “I don’t believe that I deserve anything special. All I do is screw things up for everyone I care about, and hurt them.”

“Then you have one up on that worthless pet of Celestia’s. You actually know when you screw up, and you feel bad for it. But you don’t need to, it is only a fact of life that a unicorn with a destiny such as yours would cause trouble on her way to power,” the orb said.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, and I don’t want to. I just want to help my friends and go back to my quiet life with Maud,” Trixie said.

“No, you don’t get that option. You have used those so called friends enough, now you need to seek greater power,” The orb replied.

“I do not use my friends. We are true friends and that’s the truth!” Trixie defended.

“Oh ho ho, really now? Let me examine exactly what you are doing with these so called friends of yours, shall we?” the orb said with a curious voice.

Suddenly Rarity appeared before Trixie, her eyes wet with tears and makeup running down her face. Rarity held out her hooves, they were red and swollen with bandages covering them. She looked into Trixie’s eyes and said, “All I ever do is give things to the ponies I love. I am killing myself and nopony ever gives me anything back.”

The orb laughed darkly before saying, “All you do is take from this pony, whether it is the gifts that she offers or her body. What do you give back to her?”

Trixie thought about it for a second, she didn’t give anything back to Rarity for the scarves, nor the friendship. All she had done was take from the generous pony, she had never even considered giving anything back. Trixie looked at the orb and said, “No, were friends. I do not abuse our friendship,” but even though she said this she felt like it was nothing more than a shallow lie.

The orb laughed again and Rarity vanished now being replaced by Applejack. Applejack had bags under her eyes and looked twenty years older and exhausted. She looked tiredly at Trixie and said, “Ah have to make sure that mah family is okay. Ah have to make sure that they are safe and well. Ah put everything Ah have into keeping them safe, yer all Ah have left.”

The orb flashed a bright red light momentarily blinding Trixie before saying, “So she is your cousin and yet you never spend any time with her. You have come over for dinner, what, once or twice since you moved into Ponyville. What have you been doing with your time if not spending it with family?”

Trixie lowered her head and said quietly, “She is my family, and I love her with all of my heart. I’ve just been busy lately.”

“Doing what exactly? Hiding in your tiny house with Maud? Is that all you do? Hide from the world so it can’t hurt you? You are nothing but a coward,” The orb said accusingly.

“No I’m not. I’m busy, I swear,” Trixie lied. Her heart was beginning to hurt the longer she thought about this. Had she really been abusing her friends, only using them for her own purposes?

Applejack vanished and was replaced by Rainbow Dash. Rainbow’s blue fur was covered in dirt, with scrapes and bruises covering her body. She had blood shot eyes that pierced Trixie’s soul. Rainbow Dash took in a shaky raspy breath before saying, “I won’t let anyone I love die. I can’t let them be hurt, hurt me all you want but don’t let anypony that I love be hurt. Please.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Trixie called. “You’ll be okay, I won’t let you be hurt I promise.”

“Will you now?” The orb said in a dark voice that made Trixie want to hurl, she followed by saying, “Rainbow Dash is terrified that you are going to hurt yourself again. And you have not shown her many signs of improving, now have you?”

Trixie looked away and felt tears start to run down her face. It was true, it had to be. Trixie couldn’t see any other reason for Rainbow Dash to be like this, and the realization was too hard for Trixie to take. She wanted to leave now, before she learned how she had been hurting the others that she loved so much.

Rainbow Dash disappeared and Twilight Sparkle showed up. Twilight had sparks coming from her horn, her eyes were red and her mane a complete mess. Twilight was twitching and she couldn’t seem to focus on Trixie. Twilight said in a panicked voice, “I have to fix her, I have too. All I do is hurt my friends, and now I’ve gone and ruined another pony’s life, another unicorn’s. I have to fix her.”

“Twilight,” was all that Trixie could say as she stared at the sight.

“So she’s hurt you, and instead of trying to spend your time comforting her afterwards, you just walk away to have fun with somepony else. What a wonderful person you are,” The orb said sarcastically.

Trixie closed her eyes but couldn’t stop seeing Twilight looking so miserable. She opened her eyes after a moment to find Pinkie Pie staring at her. Pinkie’s eyes were watery and tears were streaming down her face. Pinkie’s mane was completely flat and Trixie noticed that her hooves were bleeding from two deep gashes.

Pinkie didn’t smile as she said flatly, “I give everything that I have to make other ponies happy. I feel their feelings as though they were my own, and when I see you so sad, so lonely, so broken… I break a little inside. Just a little each time, and you don’t seem to want to be helped. No matter what I do it’s never enough to help you is it?”

Trixie tried to say something but all that came out was a soft cry. Trixie’s cheeks were wet from tears, her eyes were red, and she only wanted to hug Pinkie. Something kept her glued to her chair and she felt as though leaving the chair would be the death of her.

The orb glowed a little brighter and Trixie felt as though it was smiling at Trixie’s pain. “You are a terrible person, Trixie Lulamoon. This pony only wants you to feel better, so why don’t you get off your depression wagon and feel better already?”

“I do feel better than before. I know that some days are still hard for me, but I don’t want to die, I know that I’m a good pony now. Stop telling me that I’m wrong!” Trixie nearly shouted at the orb.

When Pinkie Pie disappeared and Fluttershy took her place Trixie knew that this might be the one to break her. Fluttershy’s eyes were bleeding tears; she wore a dirty and torn version of Trixie’s old cloak. Fluttershy’s chest now had a hole in it, a hole that Trixie could see through with a chain coming out. Trixie followed the chain and found it attached to the heart that was being held in Fluttershy’s hoof. Fluttershy stared at Trixie with a smile, but everything about the smile was horribly wrong.

Fluttershy couldn’t stop smiling as she said, “I love you, Trixie. Look I took my heart out so that I can give it to you, please take it, for me. I will always love you and never leave your side, I promise. Even if you don’t want to be with me, I will always follow you.”

Trixie closed her eyes and looked away, she couldn’t stand looking at the wretched version of Fluttershy that sat before her. It was more painful than any of the ponies from before. “Please no more,” Trixie begged quietly.

“So you haven’t talked to Fluttershy about her crush on you, and now it’s destroying her to see you with Maud. What are you waiting for? Do you actually want to be with Fluttershy? Or is she a back up for if something goes wrong with your current mare?” The orb asked its voice becoming manic.

Trixie whimpered and wanted to leave this dark and horrid place. Suddenly she heard the most important voice that she had ever heard in her life. “I love you,” Maud said.

Trixie opened her eyes and her heart froze at the sight. Maud was made entirely of stone, and cracks covered the entirety of her body. Maud stared at Trixie with a blank stare saying, “I love you, and even though you lie to me, even though you have feelings for another pony, even though you will hurt me and tear me to pieces. I will still love you. Even though my love for you will destroy me, it’s better than the loneliness I felt before I met you.”

Trixie screamed at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t take this any longer, the orb was torturing her and this was going too far. Trixie looked at the orb and summoned forth her magic, all of it. She built up her magic until she felt the headache come in, she continued building up magic. Trails of hot crimson began to run down Trixie’s nose, then her eyes, following her ears, finally Trixie coughed, blood came out. She looked straight at the orb.

“Buck you!” was all she could say through blood stained teeth as she unleashed a blast of purple magic energy at the orb. For a moment the blackness was illuminated by the light and Trixie saw a horrible sight that she would never be able to take back. As the orb vanished in the stream, of pure magic, Trixie could only stare in pure horror at the mountains of dead ponies surrounding her. The furthest ones she didn’t recognize, the closer the bodies were the more she recognized them. Surrounding her chair were the bodies of her closest friends, but when she looked at the ground underneath her, she realized with complete horror that the chair she was sitting on was actually balanced on top of the body the most important pony in her life.

“Maud?” Trixie whispered in disbelief.