//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventy Five: The Escape // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter Seventy Five: The Escape Written by TheCrimsonDM Since they weren’t going to leave Trixie alone it was decided that Applejack would stay by her bedside until she was recovered enough to leave the hospital. This presented a problem in the way of Trixie’s escape plan. The longer she lay in bed pretending to sleep the more she felt like she was going crazy. Trixie dared to peek over at Applejack and found the orange mare reading a book while lying on the couch against the wall. Thankfully Applejack had been kind enough to stay quiet as Trixie tried to sleep; she even turned out most of the lights in the room only using the small lamp to read by. It was late outside but Applejack seemed to be having trouble getting to sleep. “What are you reading?” Trixie asked quietly. Applejack smiled at Trixie. “Just readin’ up on a few plants for next harvest. It’s lookin’ like potatoes might be good for next harvest.” “Don’t you like apples anymore?” Trixie asked, confused by the prospect of Applejack growing anything else. “I spose that Ah haven’t been teach’n you about the family,” Applejack said more to herself than to Trixie. “Well it’s a bit of an explanation but here it goes; the land we own is huge, sometimes Ah see it for how big it is and feel overwhelmed. Thankfully we have a few families living on Sweet Apple Acers, their all our family even if they have different names. We have the Carrot family, the Corn family, and well the list goes on. “Anywho Ah was considering the possibility of adding potatoes to the farm next year. We have practically everything else growin’ so Ah figure why not?” Applejack finished with an even larger smile. “Wow Trixie didn’t know how large the farm was,” Trixie admitted. She felt a little ashamed for not having spent more time learning about her family. “Ayep, Applebloom gets lost all the time, that just goes to show how large the farm is,” Applejack explained. Trixie closed her eyes again and yawned. “Maybe you can show me around later.” This was assuming that there was a later. “It’d be mah honor,” Applejack replied. “Good night cus.” “Night.” It wasn’t too hard to go back to sleep after that. The darkness grabbed hold of Trixie and sucked her in without any effort. She knew that there would be no rest for her in the world of dreams but she didn’t fight, she just gave in and let the darkness take her away. *** Again Trixie found herself floating over her own body while she slept. Applejack stood at the doorway talking to somepony outside. Trixie willed herself to float over to the door so that she could see who Applejack was talking to. A pony wearing a light blue cloak with the hood drawn over her head stood outside. “What are you doing here?” Applejack asked accusingly. “I just wanted to check up on her,” Maud replied from underneath the hood. It wasn’t hard to recognize Maud’s voice. “Yeah, well she’s doin’ fine.” “Okay.” Maud began to turn around when Applejack interrupted her by saying, “You know she’s suffered a few injuries that couldn’t have been caused by a knife. Her back is sprained, although with how much medication they’ve been givin’ her Ah doubt she’s noticed. And she has a large bruise on her chest. Do you have any idea where those might’ve come from?” Maud was silent for a long moment before finally saying, “Will she be okay?” “That’s not what Ah asked.” “Will she?” Applejack let out a frustrated huff. “She’ll survive, but she’s damaged, Maud. Ah don’t reckon Ah can help her on my own.” “I’m supposed to wait until she asks to see me before I visit her.” “Ah’m just gonna warn you now; Ah better not find any more strange injuries on her. Do you understand?” Applejack said dangerously. Maud nodded and stood silently for a moment. Applejack finally gave in to the silence and asked, “So with that said an’ all, how have you been doing?” “I’ve been crying.” “Oh?” “Yes. It also doesn’t help that Pinkie told me that she can read minds.” “Well we all know that Pinkie Pie can do that now.” “Never mind,” Maud replied flatly. Again silence filled the space between the two and a new fear began to fill Trixie’s heart. She knew that after hurting Maud, Pinkie had been upset. But for Pinkie to tell Maud about Trixie’s mind reading ability, that was a breach of trust that couldn’t be easily forgiven nor forgotten. It occurred to Trixie that betrayal like this was exactly how Maud felt, the realization only made Trixie’s heart sink further. Suddenly Trixie felt herself being dragged away, out of the hospital, and into the night. Although she didn’t know her destination, she didn’t fight it. Where ever she was going would be better off than the hospital. *** Trixie traveled at a slower pace this time, which was a nice change of pace as it gave her time to actually think. Another good thing about this experience is that she knew roughly where she was heading. Canterlot quickly came into view although Trixie wasn’t nearly high enough to actually fly into the town. Instead she flew straight into the mountain, through a mineshaft filled with crystals and skeletons. Next she went sailing up through the mountain, the sewer, and then finally she arrived within the castle walls. When Trixie finally stopped she found herself inside a large bedroom which was home to a balcony, and the largest bed that she had ever seen. Trixie leveled herself out and carefully tried to touch the ground with her hooves. Although it was awkward not being able to feel the floor beneath her felt accomplished as she managed to land. She took a few practice steps to make sure she was steady. The fact that she didn’t create any noise with her steps felt strange. “Oh, Trixie, I wasn’t expecting you,” a surprised, but kind voice said to her. Confused at the fact that somepony had actually seen her while she was remote viewing, she quickly turned around to face the voice. Celestia stood tall before Trixie. A golden silk nightgown covered the princess. “Princess Celestia?” Trixie asked confused. “What are you doing here?” A smile crept across the princess’s lips as she stared kindly at the unicorn. “This is my room.” “I… oh… I see,” Trixie said still feeling very confused. “But what am I doing here?” “Are you saying that you don’t know how you got here?” Trixie gave a tiny smile to the princess before explaining, “I know how I got here. I flew here. The question is why am I here? Last time I was remote viewing someplace it turned out to be important.” “Remote viewing? Trixie, are you asleep right now?” Celestia asked in disbelief. “Yes I am. Right now I’m trying to find a way to escape the hospital room so that I can have Red Velvet fix my magic, or kill me. Either way I’ll be okay with it.” It took only a moment before Trixie realized what she had just said, “Wow, I’m not supposed to talk about Red Velvet. This is strange.” “When you are asleep thoughts and words tend to become one and the same, it can cause some awkward conversations until you gain mastery over yourself. I remember when Luna had begun to remote view, she would come and talk to me about all manner of things, some of them were rather… flattering.” “So you’re used to this kind of stuff?” Celestia was silent for a moment as she thought about how to respond to that. “I wouldn’t say that I was used to it. This is still rare for me, but after a thousand years of living, the rare becomes less exciting. Do you have any questions for me?” “Yeah, I have one. How can I escape when I’m being watched by everypony?” A playful look crossed Celestia’s eyes as she said, “Well when I want to escape, I sometimes use illusions to hide in plain sight. It can be quite amusing to watch my subjects searching for me as I sit on my throne invisible to all. Though, I wouldn’t suggest trying to run away from your friends. They all love you, Trixie.” “No, Applejack cares but that’s just because she’s my family. Besides, all I do is hurt everypony that I love, so what’s the point in trying anymore?” Trixie admitted shamefully. “I can relate in a way. Once upon a time I did something so horrible that I will never be able to make up for it. No matter how many centuries I spend trying to get back to being a good person again, I know that I’ll never make it. All I can do is keep trying, and hope that by the time my life is over that I’ve at least gotten close to making up for all the things I’ve done.” A kind smile grew on Trixie’s lips as she finally understood why she was here. “Thank you, Celestia. I think that was exactly what I needed to hear. I’ll start by making things up to Twilight. Because trying to get forgiveness from Maud is going to be impossible, I’ll start where I can actually accomplish something.” Just as Trixie finished speaking she was sucked back to her little hospital bed and slammed forcefully back into her sleeping body. *** For a while Trixie lay in that dark room listening to the sound of her heart monitor and trying to figure out how to escape. Celestia’s advice, although interesting, was impossible for Trixie to accomplish. Not without her old magic back. That didn’t leave her helpless though as she did have a plan. With access to her cantrips, she managed to change the color of her fur to a pale white. She then turned the color of her mane red and purple. Finally she mentally practiced imitating the voice patterns of the exact pony that she was now pretending to be. Although a little shorter then Moondancer, Trixie was almost a perfect replica of her. Carefully Trixie pulled the I.V. out and turned off the heart monitor, which allowed her a moment of silence before the nurse would realize something was wrong. She walked outside her room. Her hooves might have hurt to walk on but she knew now that she could force herself onward. Only moments after escaping her room did a nurse walk past her and enter the room. It wasn’t even a moment later before she could hear some yelling from the room behind her. Trixie quickly turned a corner and found a jacket lying on a bench. She grabbed the jacket and slipped it on, the jacket was just long enough to cover her cutie mark which she couldn’t easily change. A moment later Applejack ran past her and down the hall, a determined look worn on her face. Trixie felt bad for sneaking out and worrying the apple pony, but she needed to do this. Only a moment later did a nurse walk by her and stop her in the middle of the hallway. “Miss, have you seen a blue unicorn anywhere? She needs help and could get herself hurt if we don’t find her soon,” the nurse asked. In a tiny and shy voice Trixie replied, “No I haven’t, I’m sorry.” After a momentary silence she added in an even tinier voice, “Is she dangerous?” “Only to herself. If you do see her, please let one of us know right away,” the nurse said before taking off. Trixie let out a sigh of relief and continued onward. It was shocking just how easy it was for her to walk into the waiting room, though after seeing five of her friends all sitting in chairs around a small table she realized just how bad this could end. With as much speed as she dared Trixie walked towards the entrance, only to be stopped by Twilight Sparkle. “Moondancer? Is that you?” The alicorn asked, worriedly. Twilight left her small group to go and meet the disguised Trixie. “Oh, Twilight… it’s, um, it’s nice to see you?” Trixie said, making sure to sound weak. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked. “I’m here as part of my term, I’m training to become a full fledged doctor after all. Um, but it’s not really that big of a deal…” “Of course it is, I’m proud of you.” “Oh, really… okay, um, thank you…” Twilight looked away shyly before saying, “You know, now that I’m a princess I can do all kinds of things. Have you ever wanted to visit the secret archives in Canterlot?” “N-n-not particularly.” “Okay… we could just get something to eat sometime, I know of a really nice place around here.” “That sounds nice, but I’m, um… that is if you don’t mind I have a meeting to go too… please don’t be upset.” Twilight smiled softly at Trixie and said, “Yeah, that’s fine. Maybe I’ll see you at the reunion?” “Reunion?” “Haven’t I sent you a letter yet? Oh well, I’ll just tell you now. I’m planning a reunion for the six of us soon, and if you want to join I’d love to have you there.” “How soon? I have a lot of school work,” Trixie replied, nervously. “About a month from now, we’ll be gathering in Canterlot for it. Even if you can only make a small appearance I’d appreciate it.” “I’ll see what I can do.” Suddenly Applejack ran up to the group of ponies and said frantically, “Trixie’s gone. Ah can’t find her, Ah need yer help.” Twilight quickly said, “Sorry, Moondancer, but this is important. I’ll catch up later.” After that Twilight and the others focused their attentions on Applejack, giving Trixie the time to walk out the front door. If it hadn’t been for Twilight’s recent increase in height this plan would have been ruined on the spot. Since her plan had somehow against the odds managed to work out, Trixie was able to walk outside into the cold snow. The snow came down lightly and told her that the trip to Red Velvet’s wasn’t going to be fun.