//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventy: Out of Body // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter Seventy: Out of Body Written by TheCrimsonDM The afternoon sun shone its brilliance down upon the two sleeping ponies on Trixie bed, Trixie held Fluttershy tightly against her chest. Despite still being hoof cuffed Fluttershy was sleeping with a silly grin that showed the world just how happy she was. Everything looked so peaceful and so quiet, this moment would have been perfect for the two sleeping ponies if it wasn’t for the fact that Trixie was also currently floating over her bed and staring at her own body asleep in bed with Fluttershy. What in the actual… Trixie was unable to finish her train of thought as she felt herself being pulled away from her room. Without warning she flew through the ceiling and high above all of Ponyville. The entire town was enjoying this peaceful day and as Trixie soared over the town she could only wander at the strangeness of the situation. Yes Trixie had experienced something similar in the past when going into other ponies’ memories, or on occasion her very own. Right now however she felt that this wasn’t just a dream, no this felt too real. The only experience she had ever heard of being even similar to this was called remote viewing but that was supposed to be impossible, just like mind reading. She drifted lazily towards Rarity’s house and saw Pinkie Pie talking to Rainbow Dash outside the fashion pony’s backyard. Pinkie Pie was doing laundry although it clearly wasn’t hers. “So you can read anypony’s mind but you refuse to read the possibly bad ponies minds?” Rainbow asked accusingly. “I can’t read everyponies mind, Rainbow. Some ponies like Trixie, Celestia, The Cake’s, and to an extent Maud are still unavailable to me. Don’t know why, but I can feel most ponies’ emotions easier then read their minds. Trixie and Celestia are nearly impossible to read, I don’t get why,” Pinkie Pie explained cheerfully. “So you would rather do everyponies chores then help Twilight find a criminal?” Rainbow asked. Pinkie Pie frowned and said, “Rainbow Dash, it would be wrong of me to do that. I could never live with myself if I used my ability to forcefully enter and tear out information like Twilight wants me to do. It would hurt the pony if I was that rough, it could possibly cause permanent damage to their minds.” “Oh… that sounds really bad,” Rainbow Dash said her tone deflated a bit. Suddenly Trixie’s body or what she perceived as being her body was dragged through the air. She was flying south at increasing speeds, where she was going was unknown but she felt that it was imperative that she head there. It took merely seconds before she arrived at a very familiar location and her mind shuddered at the implications of her being here. The small two story house looked the exact same as it always did. The acres of dirt and rock that surrounded it remained unchanged as well. Unwillingly she flew through the side of the house and found herself floating in the living room. Two ponies stood at the kitchen doorway with their heads poking into the living room, the mare on the right was a dull blue the one of the left was a light gray, their straightened manes almost matched each other’s fur color perfectly. These were the twins. Three ponies sat in the living room quietly staring at one another. The brown stallion was named Igneous Rock and light gray mare was Marble Quartz, together the married couple sat on a couch. Opposite of the couch was a single chair that Maud was sitting on. The room felt deftly silent and an odd tense feeling filled the air. Trixie watched mystified as Maud interacted with her parents. “I have a question about Pinkie Pie,” Maud stated. Cloudy Quartz stared at her with a growing worry becoming clear on her face. “What’s your question?” “Where did she come from?” Maud asked. “She came from a mare’s-“ Cloudy Quartz began. “I know how she was born,” Maud interrupted. “What I want to know is where you got her from. I don’t remember you being pregnant with her. In fact I remember Aunt Cake living with us for a long time, and I remember her getting pretty fat.” The tense atmosphere snapped and Cloudy Quartz looked away from Maud. “We adopted her to keep Igneous’s sister’s reputation clean. If it had come out that she and her colt friend had a baby at such a young age it would have ruined her.” “How young?” Maud asked. “She wasn’t even eighteen yet,” Cloudy Quartz responded. Maud stared at her with a stern expression. “Why didn’t you tell Pinkie Pie?” “She never asked.” Maud frowned a little and the air around Maud suddenly became red. Orbs of red energy began slowly ebbing off of the gray earth pony. To Trixie’s surprise nopony else seemed to see the red aura around Maud. One of the orbs floated nearby Trixie so she reached out with a hoof and tapped it. It popped and Trixie felt a flash of anger that burned at her very core. This must be the manifestation of Maud’s anger, but why can I see it? “You didn’t even want her, did you?” Maud asked flatly. Cloudy Quartz frowned. “We were just helping out. The plan was to send Pinkie back as soon as she was old enough.” “You did not answer my question,” Maud said her voice rising in volume ever so slightly. Suddenly to everyponies surprise Igneous Rock spoke up. His flat voice was even more monotonous then Maud’s, but his words carried a lot of weight. “Don’t raise your voice at your mother.” “Neither of you wanted Pinkie. Did you know that she feels abandoned because of what you did?” Maud asked, her voice leveled out again but her anger was the same. “Maud,” Cloudy Quartz said, “We do ‘care’ for her. She was just too hard to handle on our own.” “She didn’t belong here,” Igneous added. “What do you mean she didn’t belong here!” Maud said loudly breaking her normally stoic nature. “What he means is that Pinkie was never going to be happy here, Maud. She is a Cake, and the Cake’s always were more rowdy,” Cloudy Quartz explained. Igneous nodded in agreement. Maud’s mouth dropped and she looked at her parents with wide open eyes. It was obvious that Maud hadn’t expected them to be like this. Trixie had the notion that Maud had expected her parents to say something kind about Pinkie, maybe to say how much they loved her, not to tell her that Pinkie never belonged on the farm with them. As if to change the subject Cloudy Quartz asked, “I noticed the ribbon around your foreleg. Did you find yourself a special somepony?” Maud began rubbing at the blue ribbon and said flatly, “Yes.” “Oh who is he?” “Her name is Trixie Lulamoon. We are engaged,” Maud explained quickly. Both of her parents stared at her, Cloudy’s eyes grew wide while Igneous kept his stoic expression. Cloudy quickly asked nervously, “I must have heard you wrong. You did say that you were engaged to a handsome stallion right?” “No I didn’t,” Maud said. “I’m going to marry a mare.” With a swift motion Cloudy clutched at her chest as though she had been physically wounded by the revelation and said, “Oh no, not you too.” “What do you mean?” Maud asked her anger growing. “You can’t be like Pinkie. Anything but that, please tell me that this was some kind of joke,” Cloudy begged. Maud stared flatly. Igneous stood from his seat and said flatly, “You should leave.” “What?” Maud asked angrily. “Until you realize the mistake you are making, you will no longer be welcomed in this house.” Igneous stated flatly. In one swift motion Maud stood from her chair and shouted, “SO YOU ABANDON PINKIE PIE, AND NOW YOU’RE DISOWNING ME!” “I told you not to raise your voice,” Igneous said flatly while pointing at the door. With hateful steps Maud marched to the front door and kicked it open. The door flew off of its hinges and soared about ten feet before crashing into the dirt. Before Maud left completely she looked back and Trixie saw the tears in the corners of her eyes. Maud spoke flatly, “Now you’ve lost two of your daughters. How long before the twins grow up and leave you alone as well?” Suddenly Trixie was sucked away from the scene. As she flew backwards through the air she knew that she was returning home, and all she could think about was how horrible this situation had become. Maud was just made an outcast by her own parents and to top it all off Pinkie was adopted. Was the entire world out to ruin ponies, because at this point it really looked like the universe was a spiteful being that wanted to only torture ponies until the day they gave up and died. *** With a start Trixie sat up in bed gasping for breath. Her mind and heart were racing and she tried to get out of bed when her back began burning again. Trixie let out a howl of pain as the feeling of molten lead covered her shoulders. She fell out of bed and began crawling towards the door, she was going to save Maud. Maud was in trouble, Maud was alone, and maud needed Trixie to hug her right now. “What are you doing? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked desperately. “I must save Maud, I’ll save you honey,” Trixie swore to herself. “But Maud is all the way in Hollow Shades, how are you going to get to her in time?” “I don’t know, maybe I’ll hijack Twilight’s magic. I can do that right?” Trixie said as she crawled even further. The pain in her back ceased as swiftly as it had appeared and Trixie stopped crawling. Fluttershy was right, this was stupid. How could she get to Maud when she was so far away? Although Trixie knew that Maud was currently in New Slate visiting her parents, she decided not to mention that to Fluttershy. Trying to explain strange dream powers that even she didn’t understand seemed a tad bit tedious right now. Trixie heard the front door open and then slam shut behind. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was here. As the clip clopping of hooves got closer and closer to the door Trixie suddenly needed an excuse to stop Pinkie from coming into her room. She looked at Fluttershy and noticed how much the hoofcuffs stood out, why didn’t they remove them sooner? “Don’t come in, I’m… I’m having private time,” Trixie lied. Pinkie stood at the front of Trixie’s door and said, “Oh… you’re using those magazines that I let you borrow. Sorry I’ll come back later, maybe I’ll let you borrow some more later, so long as you don’t touch the Fluttershy one.” “The what?” Fluttershy whispered in absolute horror. “Nope, but I’d like to finish if you don’t mind,” Trixie hollered back. “Kay, Ima take a bath then,” Pinkie called out before trotting down the hall and away from the fearful couple. Trixie stood up and with great speed hurried to the bed. She took one look at Fluttershy’s hoofcuffs and her horn lit up. The locks on the hoofcuffs suddenly exploded and Fluttershy was free. Next Trixie used her magic to open the window and then some fire magic to light the scented candles that lined the shelves. They were left over from the last time Maud was here with her. To her surprise these spells weren’t taxing her at all. “You just destroyed my hoofcuffs,” Fluttershy complained. “And what was that about magazines?” “I’ll reimburse you for the cuffs, and if you are really that curious about the magazine take a look underneath Pinkie’s bed. Just whatever you do please leave quickly and quietly, I can’t let Pinkie see us like this,” Trixie said quickly. Fluttershy stood and shook herself a little. She grabbed the cuffs in her mouth and after one last glance at Trixie she flew out the window. Trixie watched as Fluttershy hugged the ground in her flight before turning sharply and soaring higher. It looked like Fluttershy was heading in the direction of Sugarcube corner, but Trixie couldn’t be bothered with that right now. She had to make sure that this room was clean before Pinkie Pie came in. Wait the box of magic crap was still left on the table, wasn’t it? *** The next day Trixie sat quietly in her living room while reading a book about psychic abilities. It looked like Trixie had really been remote viewing and that although a little scary at first was a pretty neat idea. Hopefully Trixie would discover new mind powers like this, she especially like the idea of reading objects although her attempts at it proved less then fruitful. Fluttershy’s magic tools were shoved back into the box and set in the corner for safe keeping. Thankfully Pinkie Pie had bought the excuse that Fluttershy was learning magic from Trixie. Right now however Trixie was trying her best to not destroy herself for cheating on Maud, because after what she had seen Maud go through for her, nothing could make the sins she committed go away. The door opened and Trixie heard somepony walk in. Pinkie Pie had already left to party at Sugarcube Corner or something of similar, if she was back already then she had surely forgotten something. When Trixie looked up at the pony that was now standing at the side of the couch she had expected to see Pinkie Pie, but what she found was so much better. Maud stood in front of her with a small smile. With her heart soaring Trixie tossed the book down and leapt off the couch to embrace her favorite pony while shouting, “MAUD!” Maud wrapped a kind leg around Trixie and nuzzled into her neck. “I missed you.” “Same here,” Trixie said. “We need to talk to Pinkie Pie, do you know where she went?” Maud asked. “Yeah she went to Sugarcube Corner to party or something. We can meet her there,” Trixie said. Holding Maud at that instant was pure bliss for the blue unicorn, even with the horrible things that she had done during the past week she knew that right now she had the love of her life back. “You're home early.” “The caves were easier than expected. I had enough time to go visit my parents before coming home. Can we go meet with Pinkie, I have to tell her something,” Maud said flatly while holding Trixie a little tighter. “Um, sure. Did your visit go well with your parents?” Trixie asked full well knowing the truth already. “Let’s go talk to Pinkie,” Maud said, dodging the question. Although Maud’s evasion tactics were a sour note in this reunion, Trixie could hardly blame the stoic mare for not wanting to discuss the things her parents said. After grabbing her jacket, Trixie and Maud walked outside into the snow. It was going to hard telling Pinkie Pie the truth, but at the very least Trixie knew that Pinkie did have family who loved her. The Cake’s had been taking care of her for years now, so they obviously loved their secret love child. Next to that Pinkie Pie had Maud and Trixie as well, so no matter what Pinkie would never be alone.